Ruchi once told me how soon after she moved to the UK, she would speak to colleagues using the word ‘prepone’. She hadn’t realised that nobody knew what she meant until finally, someone asked: ‘Prepone? What do you mean?’.

She was baffled - it seemed such a strange question until she realised that unlike in India, ‘prepone’ wasn’t the (sort of) opposite of ‘postpone’.

It was something I could relate to, being a fellow migrant from an old colony where English is spoken a bit differently, with words that don’t translate into UK English. I’ve also heard similar stories as my nieces’ grandparents are Indian migrants.

We had such a laugh! Ruchi’s laughter was second to none and I’ll miss that, and pretty much everything about her. My heartfelt condolences to Deepak and the entire family, who she always spoke of so fondly.